I received this via e-mail and am in accord with its argumentation. I presume its authenticity.

November 22, 2006

Dear Prof. Lodwick

I understand that your P&T Committee at the University of Colorado is hearing Prof. Ward Churchill’s appeal against the recommendation of former interim Chancellor DiStefano that Prof. Churchill be removed from his tenured position at the University.

The basis for the recommendation is clearly Prof. Churchill’s controversial essay following the 9/11 attacks in New York City in 2001. The issues of “plagiarism” regarding many of his other scholarly articles and books are wholly without merit. I have read Prof. Churchill’s articles and books and heard him speak eloquently on issues of deep concern to him and to which he has devoted a lifetime of scholarship, viz., the appalling treatment over many centuries of American Indians in North America. Prof. Churchill’s sympathies for the oppressed people around the world, and strongly expressed opposition to the perpetrators of violence against them by the colonialists and their descendants, are but a natural extension of his passionate exposition of the plight of native Americans and the cause thereof.

The very basis of Academic Freedom rests on being able to express freely and without sanction views that might be objectionable to even a majority. The last bastion of freedom of expression is academia because mainstream media, which could otherwise be counted to defend and advance this cherished hallmark of a free and democratic society, has all but abandoned it in favor of becoming shills to the rulers.

I urge your committee to do the right thing: Oppose Interim Chancellor DiStefano’s recommended action on Prof. Churchill and issue, instead, a ringing endorsement of his right to express opinions that are not necessarily popular. In the history of the development of knowledge we have several examples of people like Prof. Churchill being persecuted for not following the prescribed straight and narrow path or stick to the official discourse. But we have come far from those days of intolerance, vindictiveness and suppression. It behooves your committee to stand by Prof. Churchill and defend his fundamental right to free speech, now more than ever before.